Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetAR-CAVE-SPRINGS-AR · Cave Springs, AR 5,778 pop · income 94th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Cave Springs
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cave Springs on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Berryville · lowest
39,548
Berryville · lowest
39,548 median HH income
18.3% of the leader · rank #1
Artois · near
147,902
Artois · near
147,902 median HH income
68.4% of the leader · rank #2
Cave Springs · this city
147,917
Cave Springs · this city
147,917 median HH income
68.4% of the leader · rank #3
Hanover · near
147,944
Hanover · near
147,944 median HH income
68.4% of the leader · rank #4
Fair Lawn · near
147,952
Fair Lawn · near
147,952 median HH income
68.4% of the leader · rank #5
Hicksville · near
148,008
Hicksville · near
148,008 median HH income
68.5% of the leader · rank #6
Parker · highest
216,179
Parker · highest
216,179 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cave Springs on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 5,778.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cave Springs - the verdict
Nationally, Cave Springs sits in the 94th percentile for household income and the 91st percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
94th
percentile, household income
80th
percentile, home value
3rd
percentile, median rent
91st
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Cave Springs, AR
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 5,778 residents in Cave Springs, a small town within Arkansas. Median household income here is $147,917 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.9%. Home values in Cave Springs run a median of $431,300, and the median resident age is 34.4 years. About 55.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 47 residential building permits were authorized in Cave Springs (Construction Slowdown), down 72% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Cave Springs reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 352.1 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Arkansas run below the national norm: the state registers 86.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $944 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Arkansas's average monthly utility costs around $210 (state average). Commute times here average 17.1 minutes, with 77.3% driving alone and 18.7% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 55.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cave Springs's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cave Springs, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Cave Springs?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.1 minutes.
How far does income reach against housing in Cave Springs?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cave Springs?
Within Arkansas, the closest population matches are Tontitown (5,739 residents, $80,987 income); Berryville (5,715 residents, $39,548 income); Greenbrier (5,875 residents, $59,099 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bryn Mawr, PA (5,777 residents); Villa Park, CA (5,776 residents); Du Quoin, IL (5,780 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Is Cave Springs growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +821 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +14.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 47 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cave Springs?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 352.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 85% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
256.1
Violent rate
96.0
Total reported rate
352.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
86.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income A+
$147,917
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A
55.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A
1.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B
96 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cave Springs profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 86.9 index
Household income: 96/100 (A+) · $147,917
Bachelor's+ share: 89/100 (A) · 55.6%
Poverty rate: 86/100 (A) · 1.9%
Violent crime: 72/100 (B) · 96 /100k
Where Cave Springs sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cave Springs's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Cave Springs highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Cave Springs, AR (this city): home $431,300, crime 352/100k
Villa Park, CA : home $1,686,200, crime 749/100k
Du Quoin, IL : home $78,000, crime 513/100k
Parker, TX : home $852,000, crime 389/100k
Tontitown, AR : home $394,200, crime 655/100k
Berryville, AR : home $153,500, crime 2,750/100k
Alma, AR : home $197,200, crime 1,487/100k
Mena, AR : home $114,200, crime 2,947/100k
White Hall, AR : home $207,100, crime 1,167/100k
How does Cave Springs compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cave Springs stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income94% higher than other cities
Home value80% pricier than other cities
Median rent3% pricier than other cities
Safety91% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Arkansas, Cave Springs ranks #4 of 160 Arkansas cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cave Springs against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Arkansas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Arkansas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cave Springs near the bottom of Arkansas's cities
Among the 524 Arkansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cave Springs ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cave Springs only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#4 of 495
99th percentile in Arkansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 524
0th percentile in Arkansas
Median Home Value
#4 of 482
99th percentile in Arkansas
Poverty Rate
#453 of 524
13th percentile in Arkansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#4 of 524
99th percentile in Arkansas
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Arkansas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
94th percentile nationally for median household income · 91st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cave Springs's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cave Springs's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Cave Springs's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$431,30020th percentilemore affordable than 20% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Cave Springs's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,231 of 15,516
More affordable than 60% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,328 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Cave Springs sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,231 of 15,516 and #5,328 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$147,917Cave Springs, AR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cave Springs, AR median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cave Springs, AR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)55.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,778
Median Income
$147,917
Median Home Value
$431,300
Median Age
34.4
Poverty Rate
1.9%
Labor force participation
64.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
55.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
352.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
96.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
256.1
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cave Springs's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,880 residents
2021
6,172 residents
2022
6,337 residents
2023
6,366 residents
2024
6,582 residents
2025
6,701 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
47
housing units authorized
Single-Family
47
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
8.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
170
150
20
$42.1M
2020
125
125
0
$32.9M
2021
70
70
0
$18.4M
2022
42
32
10
$12.0M
2023
87
87
0
$32.7M
2024
47
47
0
$17.0M
Permit volume decreased 72% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.1 minutes
Drive Alone
77.3%
Carpool
2.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
18.7%
Other
1.7%
Based on 2,604 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Arkansas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $210
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Arkansas at $210 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Arkansas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cave Springs. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Arkansas's BEA cost-of-living index is 86.9 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cave Springs is $944/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Arkansas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 55.5 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Arkansas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cave Springs sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cave Springs compares to similar-size Arkansas cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.